The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent the work is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
A network switch (hereinafter switch) is a networking device that interconnects segments of a network. A large switch can have a large number of ports (e.g., more than one hundred ports). In a large switch, most of the circuitry, including circuits that support the ports and circuits that control the operation of the network switch, is often integrated into an integrated circuit (IC). If a circuit in the IC (e.g., a circuit supporting a port) malfunctions, the IC is typically discarded.